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Friday, February 27, 2015

Death Company lost a point of WS since last codex, but got a
major upgrade because the price of their jump packs dropped by 80%. Jump pack
Death Company aren’t just viable now; they’re arguably the best Blood Angels
assault unit.

Death Company pair a Veteran statline with Rage and Feel No Pain for a decent point cost. They’ve got Relentless too, if you really want to arm
them all with bolters and rapid fire before assaulting (I usually pair bolters
with power fists and thunder hammers for the extra shot; there’s no downside). Any
Death Company Marine can take power weapons, power fists, thunder hammers, and
hand flamers, inferno pistols, or plasma pistols. The squad can take the
standard Dedicated Transports, but I prefer jump packs as they will generally
get them into assault faster. Even so, a large squad of Death Company in a Drop
Pod landing Turn 1 would be something the enemy would absolutely have to deal
with.

Monday, February 23, 2015

The Command squad has changed a bit since last codex. First,
it’s no longer called an Honor Guard. I guess having a Space Marine Honor Guard
with completely different equipment was too confusing. It is no longer unlocked
by taking a character, and it now takes up an Elite slot. The Command squad
still comes with a Sanguinary Novititiate, but it now also includes a Company
Champion. While this does limit the squad’s flexibility a bit, it is a free
upgrade (relative to the Space Marine Command squad). You start with a base squad
with Feel No Pain, a WS 5 Marine with
a power sword and combat shield, and 3 Veterans that you can arm however you
want.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Scouts are our other Troops choice, and they can carry a
more diverse armament than even Tactical squads. With Scout and Infiltrate,
they can get into the position to engage the enemy in the first turn, or
assault in the second turn. They’ve got a weaker statline than full Marines,
but they’re quite cheap by way of compensation.

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Blood Angels Tactical squad is very similar to the
standard Space Marine Tactical squad, and will use most of the same unit
configurations and tactics. There are three major differences. The first is
that they have Furious Charge; this
makes them better in close-combat than standard Tacticals when they charge, but
only then. If you play Tactical Marines often, you know they don’t often do
much in assault. They’ll kill off an respectable numbers of Fire Warriors and
Imperial Guardsmen, but they’ll flounder against any harder targets. The same
applies to Blood Angels Tactical squads, except that they’ll have the edge
against other Tactical squads. They still won’t be up to taking on Grey Hunters
or Chaos Space Marines that take an extra close combat weapon, much less any
dedicated assault squad.

Second, Blood Angels Tactical squads can take a heavy flamer
as their heavy weapon. This is pretty huge, as it eliminates the duality of the
Tactical squad. The special weapon and bolter always do their best work when close
to the enemy and mobile, but the heavy weapon wants to stay still and,
preferably, far away. Combat Squads was
introduced so that these weapons could end up in different squads, but this
doesn’t help much if you want to be aggressive with your Tactical squads. Space
Marine players have long lamented their inability to take two special weapons.
Blood Angels can sidestep this by taking a heavy flamer, which synergizes well
with bolters and special weapons despite being called heavy. It is an extremely
obvious choice for any Tactical squad riding in a Rhino or Drop Pod, as it will
be fully effective when they disembark. I prefer to pair it with another flamer
(and possibly a combi-flamer on the sergeant) so my Tacticals are really good
at dealing with infantry and have excellent Overwatch,
but you can pair it with any special weapon thanks to the magic that is Combat Squads. The most important thing
is that, when your Rhino roars up to the enemy lines, ten Marines jump out and
fire to full effect.

Friday, February 13, 2015

It took me a while, but I finally finished some of my new Blood Angels. I'm away from home until early summer, and it's amazing all of the things I take for granted that help me do my painting. I brought one of my lamps with me, but I really miss my desk and chair (wooden chairs are not designed for sitting in for hours on end). I thought I brought all of the paints I would need, but I seem to have missed a few important ones, forcing me to mix some highlight colors. All together, it meant that five Tactical Marines took far longer than usual. I suppose my new job contributed a bit as well...

Monday, February 9, 2015

Techmarines now take up an HQ slot, meaning that I doubt
you’ll ever see one again. Their statline hasn’t improved at all, and they have
the same artificer armor and servo-arm, with the option to take a full
servo-harness or a jump pack. He can choose from most of the armory, though he
does not have access to relics. He can take a retinue of Servitors, who can
either help him fix vehicles or provide some firepower. He can also improve the
cover save of any single piece of terrain in your deployment zone. I found this
rule great for my Executioners, but I suspect it will be less useful with an
army as aggressive as Blood Angels. I don’t expect to take many units that will
hang out in cover in my deployment zone.

Honestly, I don’t see much point in the Techmarine. He is
the cheapest HQ choice, but the Sanguinary Priest and a Librarian are just
slightly more expensive and will bring much more to your army. You could take a
Techmarine with a servo-harness and stick him inside a Stormraven to keep it in
the air, but that’s a substantial amount of points to add to an already
expensive vehicle for a modest increase in survivability.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Unfortunately, we lost our special Reclusiarch, while the standard Chaplain has been moved from Elites to HQ. He still has all the
Chaplain abilities we know and love, coming with Zealot, a power maul, and a 4+ invulnerable save. He no longer has
the Litanies of Blood from last
edition; only Astorath kept that. He has the same statline as the Librarian and
Priest, i.e. not bad but nothing to be excited about.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Sanguinor is a unique character, not quite fitting into
the categories into which most HQs fall. He dropped in cost significantly since
last codex, for the loss of one attack and a point of invulnerable save, as
well as his ability to buff one of your sergeants. Overall, he has a great
statline, just short of Mephiston’s, and he has the coveted Eternal Warrior. He’s still not an
independent character, so will have to run around the battlefield by himself. He’s
armed with an encarmine sword, a death mask, artificer armor, and an iron halo.

Monday, February 2, 2015

The Sanguinary Priest is now an HQ choice, and only one can
be taken per slot. This does greatly limit the number of Priests that we can
take relative to the last codex, though I would argue that we don’t need as
many of them now. Before, they were a lynchpin for the army, granting all
important bubbles of Furious Charge
and Feel No Pain. Now, everybody has Furious Charge. The Priest now augments
one very important unit, giving it an extra point of Weapon Skill and Feel No Pain. He still gives both an
offensive and defensive buff, just to a single squad. If you consider this in
combination with Furious Charge (and
+1 Initiative from the Baal Strike Force), a squad led by a Sanguinary Priest
is better than it has ever been.